It’s hard to believe how much has changed in the last year and a half. We are now in the season of life with two little munchkins. How did we even get here? Where did time go? These are questions I’m sure all parents ask themselves multiple times throughout the parenting journey.
Reflecting on the newborn phase with Rory versus Sawyer has been on my mind a lot since we’ve brought Sawyer home from the hospital. The newborn bliss is not the same with the second one.
The newborn bliss with a first baby is overall calmer than it’s been with a second. While you don’t know what to expect with a first born, there is something so special about that first child experience. Everything is new and you are experiencing it all for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s special the second time around but there’s something extra special about the very first newborn experience.
One of the biggest differences in this newborn phase with Sawyer verses the newborn phase with Rory are directly related to covid. We had Rory in October 2020, just as covid was coming back on the rise again. Covid testing in the hospitals, masking, no visitors at home for 2 weeks (which was our own decision). It was an isolated experience yet an intimate and memorable one for our family of three at the time. Now as we grow into a family of four we have a bigger support system from the moment we brought Sawyer home. In fact one of the biggest differences is our living situation. Ever since we got home from van life we have been living with Andy’s mom…this means we have grandma on hands nearly 24/7. If there is ever a time to be living with grandma it’s when you have a newborn and a 1.5 year old in a cast. Life has a funny way of working itself out, doesn’t it?
Another huge difference is that we are able to have visitors without being masked, quarantined, etc. Sawyer met a majority immediate family within 3 days of being born. Being able to have visitors was something we weren’t used to with Rory. While it can be exhausting to have people over post-partum it also brings joy to know how much love you are surrounded by during a big change in life.
The journey of breastfeeding has been much easier this time around. It’s been easier for myself since I know what I am doing. In addition, Sawyer latched on to me better than Rory did. This brought less stress to everyone involved. Since Sawyer had a good latch from the start, she was feeding well, getting full, and sleeping well. The experience with Rory was different for the first month but we got through it and I still breastfed him up to 8 months, but there was just hurdles along the way. This time is was smooth sailing right at birth.
You don’t need to have a big mindset shift when having a second baby so close. We are already in baby mindset and equipped with baby items. We spent a lot of time preparing the nursery when I was pregnant with Rory. I loved having the time to prepare the nursey as it adds to all of the anticipation of the big life changes to come. This time around however, we didn’t have a nursey to prepare. Since selling our home and doing van life last summer, we’ve been set up in the basment of Andy’s mom’s house so the preparation was very low key. Preparation was mostly collecting diapers and upgrading Rory to a big boy car seat so we had the infant car seat to use for the new baby.
Having two under the age of two has it’s challenges right now but I remind myself it’s all a season and the only thing to do is to cherish the season. In addition we have so much support surrounding us which I remind myself to be grateful for because not everyone has that, and as the saying goes “it takes a village.”
Here’s to parenting through life, and the finding the beauty in our flip flop life.
